From Sail2Indonesia Rally 2015
I'm already behind on my rally stop coverage! We definitely "did" the 3rd stop- it was actually an exhausting itinerary but you can't help but feel for the people who have done so much work planning all of these experiences for us. It was on the island of Buru, in the Mollucca Regency and the anchorage was at the village of Namrole. This was a new destination and yachts hadn't come here in the past as part of a rally. While the nautical chart is terrible and doesn't even show an anchorage, a downloaded satellite image chart tells you otherwise. We rely on sat charts a lot in Indonesia and despite iffy internet connections, we have been successfully downloading them off Venture Farther. It was a really pleasant anchorage with a little island blocking most of the southerly swell. We did do some rolling there but it was nowhere near bad. There was the usual prayer music wafting out over the anchorage, making us feel at home.

Once again, the villages we visited over 2 very intense days greeted us with wide open arms and smiles. There were designated people to grab our dinghy painter, usher us from event to event and bus us over the distance to show us some of their island. The first day was a bus ride into the interior of the island to the edge of a beautiful stream. They used their bamboo rafts to ferry us across to the other side where a really nice trail meandered through the forest to a distant seaside village. It would be my favorite part of the day, this walk through the woods & this stream, because I miss this sort of thing. At the start of an elevated boardwalk, there was a band waiting. They played as we walked the rest of the way. At the village, the local women had prepared a lunch and they'd set up chairs along the rocky beach and adorned the tables with palm fronds. We are seeing a pattern to these meals. They are not dissimilar to the Tongan feast or the traditional meals we had in Fiji where there are numerous things to try and fish prepared several ways. And you may or may not come out OK. But Pepto is a wonderful drug! There were dance performances, we toured the school, paraded around town and shook hands and greeted many friendly, curious faces. Oh yes, we posed for a billion pics too! They showed us one of their favorite swimming holes and did some kind of blessing so that we could swim in it too if we wanted. We didn't. One thing that has been blowing me away is that it feels like we are out in the middle of nowhere. These villages are really basic. But out on the beach, they will have erected this bamboo framed, covered structure, filled it with decorations and chairs for us to sit in and then there will be microphones set up and flower bouquets set up on tables, sometimes even living room style furniture brought under the lean-to for this occasion! We saw this village after village. Anyway, after all of that, several of us walked back most of the way, over the stream & through the woods where we were eventually picked up by the bus and brought back to the waterfront which was rally headquarters. They even had a special rally building, set up with a big fridge full of cold beer so that when we got back, we could have a cold one and shoot the breeze some among ourselves.

The following day, we started at 9am on the beach for what would be a very long day! They bussed us to 4 villages, each offering something slightly different, but still with a lot of similarities. There was always a welcome dance and the main street was decorated with colorful flags, fronds and flowers. There were officials at each village and speeches to listen to- mainly in Bahasa. We've grown accustomed to these, where we hear long paragraphs of unrecognizable words, then "Wonderful Sail 2 Indonesia", then another few paragraphs... followed by the same. I am really trying to learn some Indonesian and I always have a cheat sheet in my pocket but it isn't coming easy. When under pressure, the Spanish sentences come rushing forward and I want to speak it! But it is still amazing how much you can convey with sign language to get your basic needs met. It just feels so much more polite if you can manage to express yourself with their language though. The word for water is air. That's an easy one.

So one village was on a stream and they gave us rides on traditional bamboo rafts, poled with a bamboo stick for movement and steerage. In another, they showed us a more traditional village and they had a display of old spears. We were pretty distracted though because we were gawking at the mouths of some of the men since they were blood red from chewing the betel (?sp) nut. This was the first time we'd seen it in person. Yuck! I guess when chewed, it provides some sort of pleasure, but like kava, we don't think we'll ever run the risk of getting addicted... and we aren't trying it either! Back in Cairns, at the rally muster, we were given this great little hardcover book that explains each stop with pictures and scheduling. Along the way, I have studied these pics very carefully. So several days after this day, I was looking at the pics we'd snapped and I see one Jon had taken of a man in this village and it turns out it is the same man that was in the picture in the book we have! I mean, we are literally coming in contact with several hundred people in one day and he takes a pic of the same guy, in a village way back in the interior of the island. That is one of those weird things that happen.

At the third village, another seaside one, we were once again provided with a beautifully prepared lunch, and fresh coconuts to drink on the beach. When lunch was running late, the rally staff came running out with PB crackers to tide us over. We got the after lunch droopsies but there was still one more village waiting for us to arrive. We rolled in to very full streets with a seriously large amount of excited people. As in previous villages, the sides are lined with kids in their school uniforms waiting for you to shake their hand and say a word or two. Us rally participants were paraded down the street to the beachside for a dance presentation, a few more speeches welcoming us and then a really intense, but meaningful invite to step down onto the beach sand and have an exchange with the people of the village. We all gathered there- rally participants and locals, and many excited kids and we just hung our arms around each other taking pics, smiling, spreading good will with our eyes and looking at each other. This is really what happened. Then, after a little while, we said goodbye and they bussed us back to Namrole. We hit the beer fridge and nearly knocked it over all reaching for the coldest one. It was 5:30 and we all had to go back to the boat and shower, then come back in for a gala dinner and farewell ceremony!

It was another local food bonanza and our stomachs were crying out for it to stop but they really did go all out on another dinner complete with pastries & coffee for dessert. The Regeant, which is sort of like our version of a mayor, gave us a lovely farewell & shared how incredibly happy he was to see all the boats show up in Namrole. He mentioned that 2 years ago, they planned for another rally to come and no one showed up! How sad. We had 31 boats there and as we sat that night in our fancy chairs, we could gaze out at the all the anchor lights bobbing in the anchorage and feel good about being there. The Regeant even did a karaoke song in English of Frank Sinatra's "I did it my way" which was just great! We did some dancing and there was a really good vibe going. By the end of night, we were very tired but we left feeling- I don't know, mixed up because this messes with your mind, but glad that we'd been there to see it and to participate, hoping we touched a few lives as they had touched ours.

We slept for a whole 5 hours. Then it was back up at 4:30am to leave the anchorage. We had 210 miles to go to get to Wakatobi, the next island group, and if we left later, we wouldn't make landfall before dark. Several other boats had the same thinking. And it wasn't hard to get up and leave. In fact, we were mentally chomping at the bit to go to sea. Witnessing life in these villages isn't easy. We are from a different world and we didn't do anything special to be from it. The rally puts us in an odd position of being somewhat of a figure and that too is hard. We try to give what we can. After a couple days of this we need time to process it all along with the strange food that we have eaten. The sea has a cleansing effect, both mentally and physically. It makes us appreciate our provisions too!

We had an incredible passage to the Wakatobi island group with perfect wind, fast speeds and a glowing sea again. I had thought the winds were gone since we were so close to the equator but actually, this leg had us moving back south and we're back at 5 degrees now. We arrived more rested and ready to dig in to some serious diving. Which is what we've been doing. Will report on that in the next installment.